Telecoms mostly oppose further delays to next-gen 911 network roll-out

In response to a CRTC call for comments, Canadian telecommunications providers have indicated that they generally agree with new deadlines for the rollout of next-generation 911 networks across Canada. In April, the CRTC pushed back a number of deadlines for the rollout of NG911 services, and for the decommissioning of the existing 911 system, due to the impacts of COVID-19. The CRTC delayed several key deadlines by nine months — under the new plan, providers are to have their networks ready to support voice components of the internet-based NG911 service by March 30, 2021 (instead of June 30, 2020). They will then have until March 2024 to decommission existing 911 networks (pushed back from June 2023). In an intervention, Rogers Communications Inc. noted that with “immense progress already made,” it agreed with most of the CRTC’s proposed dates, while BCE Inc. wrote that the new voice deadline was “reasonable and appropriate.” Telus Corp. also called it “reasonable,” but noted that a March 2022 date for the rollout of text messaging functionality on NG911 was “premature,” due to its complexity. However, telecoms and other stakeholders offered more divergent views on the CRTC’s proposed deadline for decommissioning the existing 911 network. An intervention from the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees advocated for the decommissioning date to be pushed back one year beyond the CRTC’s proposed nine month delay, to ensure that any problems with the next-generation system (particularly its text messaging functionality) could be ironed out with certainty before switching off the older 911 system. The union wrote in French that “safety must come first in the NG911 deployment.” Other interventions from groups representing emergency response workers requested a similar delay in the decommissioning process. In opposition, Shaw Communications Inc. and Rogers firmly opposed any delay in decommissioning the older 911 network, suggesting that the CRTC should retain its original, pre-COVID date of June 2023. “While both the current 9-1-1 networks and the NG9-1-1 networks are operating in parallel during the transition period, wireless service providers will have to pay for both services … this places a costly burden on wireless service providers,” wrote Shaw in its intervention. Meanwhile, Bell’s intervention agreed with the CRTC’s proposed 2024 decommission date, noting that while Canadians may have to pay double 911 tariffs during the transition period “such a small monthly charge can hardly be construed by any reasonable person to be a burden.”

Telecoms mostly oppose further delays to next-gen 911 network roll-out

Brief | November 11, 2020

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Telecoms mostly oppose further delays to next-gen 911 network roll-out

Brief | November 11, 2020

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